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Monthly Archives: March 2013

So everything seems to be going well, in terms of training anyway. Alice and I continue to improve and even our coach thinks we have enough for a short (3-minute) routine. He even listed the things we might include, but I’m not content with those. I have my own ideas, and Alice is in agreement – we’ll improve to go beyond what we have so the routine will be more kick-ass.

I once asked her why she chose to pair up with me. She’s been reticent about answering, and while I am curious, I won’t push it. We talked a bit about some personal things, none of which I’ll mention here (hey, I was seventeen once. I hardly knew my own motivations back then). I think we know each other better, and I’m willing to continue with what we’re doing. She is adamant about being committed, though at her age, being so passionate seems only natural. If I had to guess, this may last for a while. Maybe even after she’s in college. At that point, there will be plenty of guys who will want to be with her. And I’m sure she’ll want to do more with her free time than hang out with her elderly base-man when that happens! We’ll see how it goes.

I have suggested she broaden her circus horizons a little by taking a couple of sessions with Mary Kelly’s Fly School, while it’s in town. She agreed, and is rather excited about it. I also suggested a few sessions with Buster, of Latin Nation so we can learn the lifts and turns that salsa has to offer. Which was also met with some enthusiasm, and I’ll be emailing her mother about this soon.

I suspect my girlfriend won’t be too happy about that. Though… she’s been pretty supportive so maybe she’ll be fine. As she wryly mentioned, Alice is 17. Nothing will be happening.

My girlfriend has a possible gig coming up herself in April. She hasn’t committed to it yet, though I think she’ll do it.

Speaking of gigs… I have something like one coming up as well, in May. I’m not entirely sure how it will go, and it sounds like it’ll be a bit unusual. The one in July I’m doing with Alice is a little more straightforward.

One of the positions we’re working on looks like this:

A simple, but pretty cool-looking position. The plan is to start the routine with her standing on my upper back:

I’ll go from prone to standing, she moving, adjusting, and balancing the whole way. It’s about a minute right there, with 5 minutes to go if we want. I want her to do at least a couple of minutes on the silks – it’s HER show, so I want her to shine. I’m just another apparatus as far as I’m concerned. This time.

Then we’ll squeeze in… we should have time for about 2 and a half minutes for other acro stuff. It’s shaping up to be a decent routine so I think we’ll both be happy with it.

I’ve been working with her since the second week of February. She’s very flexible, though not quite yet to the point of contortionist. However, she needs to be much stronger – a fact she’s all too aware. She IS only 17, so the strength will come as long as she’s consistent.
And you know what? She HAS been consistent. I’ve actually been pretty pleased with her so far. Nervous too. A girl so young… She says she wants this badly enough to take it as far as possible, but I’m finding it difficult to believe she can stay committed for so long.
Part of it too, is that I still don’t know her too well. Yet.
Anyway, she already has a gig lined up for us. She came to me a couple of weeks ago to ask, almost timidly, about doing something at the community arts center (where she works). She was already going to do an aerials routine there, but she thought we might do something together.
“When? July? Yeah, we can probably put something together by then…”
“Bitchin’!”
Oboy…
I’ve long had in mind the possibility of putting a mixed routine together. I don’t know how she is in the air so I’ll need to see that, and then see how we can mesh the two.
I can almost guarantee she’ll be as good as Erica was, in the next few months. Maybe even a little beyond that. How much stronger she gets, is what will determine how much farther she’ll get. That, and how well we can bond together. We’re already getting a feel for each other so things will be progressing quickly until her strength becomes the sole issue.

I admit to being cautiously optimistic. She stands easily on my shoulders, and she’s not too bad about balancing on my head either. When she can do handstands better, I think we’ll do well.